How To - - -

31 Days of Dinner Ideas for June (rock your homeschool)

May 26, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Menu planning when homeschooling not only gives you sticking ability for homeschooling, but your family’s health is not compromised. Today, I have 31 days of dinner ideas for June but first I have to tell you why and how I plan this way.

Why Menu Planning for 31 Days Rocks (sorry no 7 day planning here)

For many years I have planned for 31 days regardless of the amount of days in a month.

Look at a few of these tips for planning for 31 days that I keep in mind.

You can look at your family’s schedule or appointment, but that takes too long for me. I plan for 31 days without trying to plan around appointments, days off or holidays. The goal is to gather 31 meals that my family will eat and remember. It’s about having them at my fingertips.

My goal for 31 days is to have ideas, not to be hemmed in. This means I can switch around ideas, which is why I don’t try to think of easy dinner ideas when we have appointments for the day. I have 31 days of options to choose from and can make decisions each week based on my family’s needs. Do you see how easily that you can plan for the next 7 days? It’s liberating to have more ideas ready than it is to have the next week sneak up on you and then have no plan. I don’t like that feeling and don’t want to be faced with it. It takes away from peace in our homeschool.

This same mindset applies to coupons and discounts. My 31 days of dinner ideas allows me the flexibility to take advantage of grocery store savings, the amount of time I have for the week and my family’s request for certain food. I will mark off dinner ideas or draw an arrow to another day when I want to take advantage of grocery store savings for that week.

The hardest part of planning is coming up with the ideas and then having the recipes. All my recipes are hyperlinked so that you can have dinner ready quickly.

Don’t undervalue your time by spending needless hours at the grocery time buying one or two items that you need for dinner.

When I cook, I have all my ingredients on hand and actually enjoy cooking so much more than I did when I planned for only 7 days.

31 Day Planning means Flexibility, Saving Money and Being Healthier. That Equals Smarter

I have no gasps of being in the middle of cooking and not having one key ingredient needed to complete the meal. I hated when that happens and I refuse to do it.

Cooking should be a fun part of homeschooling and I love caring for my family. 31 day menu planning lightens my burden each month and turns cooking into something that is painless, delightful and an enjoyable part of our day.

I hope these few tips I shared this month keeps you rocking on with 31 days of dinner ideas.

We are halfway through the year with month six and I am loving every bit of sharing with you.

Keep in mind I have repeated only a very few recipes because variety is what makes cooking for your family satisfying. Can you make that your challenge?

Download Here 31 Days of Dinner Ideas for June

If you need some more ideas, grab some of the other 31 days of dinner ideas.

January dinner ideas along with an editable menu planner
February dinner ideas
March dinner ideas
April dinner ideas
May dinner ideas

Are you struggling with this? In what area?

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Why Nobody Cares if You Homeschool Year-Round (or shouldn’t)

May 18, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Why Nobody Cares if You Homeschool Year-Round @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus — Why Nobody Cares if You Homeschool Year-Round @ Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

While I sit here writing this article, my husband has made a change into a new career that we’ve planned for and are excited about. Starting out, it means working 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Grueling schedule to say the least for him, and I’m right there cooking/packing every meal for him because his workplace doesn’t have a restaurant. And a lot of times, he can’t leave the building for lunch or his lunch is shortened back from one hour.

Back to my point, what does this have to do with homeschooling year-round? Everything, for me.

That is just the point, my schedule has nothing to do with your family’s schedule and the schedules of other families have nothing to do with mine.

I too have shared many times over about the the advantages of homeschooling year-round, but it’s more important to know how to tell if you can instead of telling you why you should.

Look at Homeschooling Year Round Chaos or Calm, What is Year Around Homeschooling Part 1 and Part 2 if you want some more tips.

Homeschooling too is about not being sorry or feeling guilty for things you can’t control.

3 Quick Tips to Adapt to Homeschooling Year-Round

Instead of sharing pros and cons of homeschooling year-round because they won’t help one bit if you can’t, I want to share how to tell if you should even consider it.

Family schedule matters.

There is just no getting around it, your child’s learning ability can’t be the only weighing factor as to whether or not you homeschool year-round.

For example, my husband’s schedule is pretty predictable right now.

Homeschooling year-round gives me to time to plod along when I am getting up every morning at 4:30 to 5:00 a.m.

I wake my kids right up alongside us because I need my whole household to be on the same schedule.

By the way, this is a tried and trued tip, which has worked for me as we have experienced many different schedules. It is just too hard, not to mention stressful when half of your family gets up when they want to or some other hour and the other half doesn’t.

Guess what? The do-whatever-you -want-to- schedule for the kids comes back to bite you when you need your household quiet for the Mr. or even for a younger child.

This summer, instead of starting school at 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. like we use to, we start school closer to 8:00 a.m. or even before because we have been up for a while, finished chores and are ready for our day.

I remember back to our very first co-op I attended where the leader canceled school for the summer. I was puzzled because my kids were little and I was ready to keep on going.

Finding out later that day that her husband was the head coach at the local public school, I learned right away how a family schedule affects year round-homeschooling.

Who wants to have such a rigid day of homeschooling when dad is off for the summer? Not me.

Seasons matter.

I would like to say that seasons don’t matter here in Texas, but when you have 3 days of winter (okay, we had a bit more this year) and a lot of summer heat, days are long and hot.

Having the top of my kids’ heads baked just never appealed to me. Our time outdoors during the summer months is limited to a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening.

Guess what? That is a lot of in between time, which needs to be filled with meaningful activities.

For a majority of our homeschool years we have homeschooled during the summer than not because it filled our days with meaning and it also meant we could skip school on days when the weather changed to glorious.

When it is spring or fall, we don’t feel guilty spending a lot of time outdoors because we’re normally well ahead in our curriculum.

High School matters.

The few times we have followed a traditional public school schedule is when my oldest two sons graduated.

Whether your child is interested in going to college right away, starting a career or doing some Bible based work, you need to be sure he starts off right by finishing school close to the time he suppose to graduate.

There is nothing that stresses a responsible homeschooled teen more than having the feeling of being behind because he has a life after homeschooling.

Whether you read the pros and cons of homeschooling year-round, it shouldn’t matter to you because many years, homeschooling year-round has little to do with whether you want to or not and a lot to do with your family’s present groove.

Mercifully, homeschooling fits your circumstances and circumstances can change quickly.

By the way, I love this new schedule as we have all settled into it and knowing my husband’s deployment will be a few short months, like 3 or 4 at a time, I find the good in it.

Did I mention how much I get done each day by being up early every day? Here and there he may have off Sundays and that is a plus too.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Linking up @ these places:

3 Reasons Why Homeschoolers Are Take Charge People

May 15, 2016 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whether you’re timid by nature (sometimes, I wish I were) or if you’re loud and get fired up easily like I can be when talking about homeschooling, homeschoolers are take charge people.

Did you know that you’re in the norm when you can’t figure out which curriculum to use with your children or when you worry about socialization for them?

What you have figured out is that you don’t swallow the bunk meted out by homeschooling critics when they tout that your kids are unsocialized or that we are die hard religious fanatics.

We very well may be religious zealots or our kids may be on the weird side, but we do know the answer is not sending them to public school.

Shatter The Image – All Homeschoolers Are Not Religious Zealots

Admittedly, I do get tired of hearing how the only reason we homeschool is for religious reasons and the reason our kids say offensive things is because they are homeschooled.

Look at these 3 reasons why homeschoolers are take charge people.

ONE | Homeschoolers are take charge people because we are willing to not just question the educational system, but to step out of it and go against it.

What you have figured out is that the educational system can’t have it both ways.

Either public schools are becoming more dangerous, only care about tests, don’t teach our kids math and reading well, don’t do enough about bullying, not to mention drugs or it is the place we are suppose to send our kids to learn to get a superior education and be “socialized.”

The public school educational system is flawed and though I don’t think none of us claim to be experts on parenting, we are the experts in knowing the needs of our children.

TWO | Homeschoolers are take charge people because we don’t make excuses for our kids.

We don’t make the assumption that could be a trap for homeschoolers which is that homeschooling ensures success.

Instead of making excuses for our kids, we are willing to exert the effort to ensure that they not only get the basics of a well-rounded out education, but we go above and beyond what the curriculum is teaching.

Not making excuses for our kids negative behavior, lack of study skills or bad attitude, we are willing to confront that head-on.

Knowing that we are not guaranteed success, but that homeschooling sure stacks the chances of success in our favor, we are willing to work hard for our kids.

THREE | Homeschoolers are take charge people because we are homeschooling to equip our kids to be independent adults and to learn valuable life skills.

Do I really need to mention that we are not interested in just meeting academic standards of public school, but exceeding them?

We already know that superior academics is a given as a standard for most homeschool families, but we want it all when it comes to educating our children.

For example, most parents know that their kids don’t know how to budget, know about checking or savings account or about taxes.

Let me rephrase that, teens may think money comes from putting their debit or credit card card in the machine and money miraculously comes from a checking or savings account.

Appreciating the value of hard work, budgets and how to manage money is something homeschool parents are not leaving up to public school.

True, not all kids coming from public school are ill-equipped to handle life skills, but we both know that teaching life skills is not top priority in public school.

We are take charge people because we are willing to work extra hard at teaching our children not only academics, but valuable life skills so they can be an effective decision-maker.

Whether Christian or secular, we want to teach our children our values and want to go above standards set by any school. Too, our children are bad on their own without the influence of public school and that too is our problem as a parents.

Going against the current is flat out hard and I too want to give up on some days. But then I think about the flip side of this homeschooling life by floating along and following the masses and that I can’t imagine.

Having it all figured out doesn’t make you a take charge person, but taking on the lifelong journey of educating your children does.

I’m glad to be in your company.

Hugs and love ya,

Also look at The Truth About Delaying a Start to Homeschooling because homeschooling because it is a last ditch effort may not work for you, and 10 Books That Boost Your Homeschool Zen (When It May Be Sagging).

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Medieval Homeschool History – 4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study

May 8, 2016 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We’re studying Medieval homeschool history and knights and castles make for a fascinating study of the medieval times. Also, look at my free 4 week Middle Ages Unit Study for more fun.

However, many other topics and vocabulary words can make it hard and well, flat out boring to study this time period.

Getting lost in the medieval world where definitions of words and topics are not things that you or your children hear and speak everyday can make you feel like you’re sinking when you start studying about them.

Medieval Homeschool History

Today, I am sharing 4 surefire ways to beat a boring study.

They have worked for me when we studied this topic before and how I will be incorporating them again when we study medieval homeschool history next.

We are excited to move on to medieval history and we will be using Beautiful Feet because you know I love their books and how they give a framework to guide you in the study.

However, I also love Beautiful Feet because they fit my criteria needed to complete a meaty and fun history unit study.

4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study

Take a look at these 4 things to include when studying medieval history.

1. LIVING BOOKS.

Living books are a must-have to cover history eras, which may be hard or boring to explain.

Too, when studying history where there may be fewer primary resources, fictional history can stir a child to think about the “what if”.

Teaching facts and making a story relevant to current life is the advantage of living books. Mix in fictional history and your child’s curiosity is sparked.

I love the living books used in Beautiful Feet’s medieval history study because reading about King Arthur, Robin Hood and Beowulf draw my boys into thinking what it would be like to live back in those times.

That is the beginning to expanding on subjects that are important, like inventing the first printing press, which may or may not interest your children.

2. HANDS-ON HISTORY.

My second must-have or must-do when studying time periods that are difficult to understand is to add hands-on projects. Hands-on history hooks a kid on a topic they’ll remember on into adulthood.

They not only make a subject come to life, but motivate a kid to keep digging into deeper topics. Take a look at 10 Ways to Hook Homeschooled Kids On History.

3. VOCABULARY WORDS DEFINED.

Vocabulary words are normally better understood and defined when they are read in a book because it helps your kids to understand their relevance.

That is still important when studying the ancients or medieval, but because of how archaic the language can be, I find that defining vocabulary words separately too is absolutely necessary to making the meaning clear.

I don’t believe in a long drawn out process that takes away from whatever it is your kids are learning at the moment. Narration is a perfect tool to incorporate at this point.

Writing them down helps to reinforce them too so that your kids don’t get lost in the out of date language.

4. MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHY.

Lastly, geography is important to visualizing the medieval world.

Then, a connection can be made to the modern world.

Geographical boundaries and names can change, but land forms can stand the test of time for a much longer period.

When a child sees where events take place at, then maps become not just a boring paper with names to memorize, but a picture from that time period.

It’s easier to understand how the environment affected the way people thought and felt at that time.

Living books, hands-on history, out of date words defined and geography are four surefire ways to beat a boring study about medieval history.

You’ll love the literature lists put together by Beautiful Feet. They are my go to place for guides and literature.

I can’t wait to get started with our unit study.

What do you like to include in your study of medieval history?

Hugs and love ya,

Also, look at how we used Beautiful Feet before in When We Used Beautiful Feet Books as our History Spine and also look at How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History.

31 Days of Dinner Ideas for May

April 26, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I am glad you are following along with me as I am finally sharing how I menu plan, which is 31 days at a time.

Today, I have 31 days of dinner ideas for May.

Here are my reasons why I menu plan for 31 days and how I do it so quickly:

Dinner is the time of the day which I need help with the most because it is a busy time in my household and I need to go through the motions of preparing dinner without wanting to think about or compromise my family’s health;
I use to look ahead and plan for field trips, doctors, days off of homeschool,etc. but I don’t plan that way anymore because I can quickly move around any of my 31 days of dinner ideas. Putting them down is more important and having a plan than trying to make my life line up with each meal;
My dinner ideas reflects my family’s tastes and health issues. We do love meat, but we have never eaten a lot of red meat or fried food because of my husband’s health. When I add them to my menu, it’s a treat or once in a while. So we eat a lot of chicken;
Too, my dinner ideas reflect how we like to eat during each season. For example, we love to grill when we can or eat one pot meals or lighter pasta or salad meals with a bit of meat added when the heat is hot here in Texas. We love more soups in winter and lighter soups during summer months.
I am not into fancy food, but meals my children will eat and enjoy.
We don’t have any issues like gluten free, so our meals reflect that fact.
I do try to get as many organic and fresh products as I can and then choose frozen food next.
I always have a few crock pot meals spread throughout each month. On busy homeschool days, I have one or two crock pot meals to choose from.
It’s much easier to plan for 31 days and use the rest of the month relaxing than it is to plan for the next 7 days, which comes quicker than you realize.

As I go along this year, I have been planning tips for long-range menu planning and I hope one of my ideas above will inspire you to plan for a longer period of time.

You can grab next month’s 31 days of dinner ideas below.

31 Day Planning means Flexibility, Saving Money and Being Healthier. That Equals Smarter.

Download Here May 31 Days Dinner Ideas

If you need some more ideas, grab some of the other 31 days of dinner ideas.

January dinner ideas along with an editable menu planner
February dinner ideas
March dinner ideas
April dinner ideas

We’re almost half way through the year and I think I have only repeated two or three meals. Variety truly is the spice of dinner!

Are you still with me?

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How To - - -

31 Days of Dinner Ideas for June (rock your homeschool)

Why Menu Planning for 31 Days Rocks (sorry no 7 day planning here)

31 Day Planning means Flexibility, Saving Money and Being Healthier. That Equals Smarter

Download Here 31 Days of Dinner Ideas for June

Why Nobody Cares if You Homeschool Year-Round (or shouldn’t)